Let’s face it. Studying at school entails some pretty nasty things that we struggle so hard to avoid, but unless we throw in the towel and quit studying altogether, we should learn to accept them. Ready?

Tests and exams. They bug us because we are afraid of failure. But we can’t rid the world of exams, because the population is way too big to let everyone have their dream jobs, right? We have to earn our positions in the world, and the way to prove ourselves is most commonly through tests. I’m afraid they’re not going to disappear anytime soon.

Having to memorize data. If we study history or math, we come across dates and formulas that we have to remember in order to progress in our academic pursuits. The quadratic equation or the formulae of trigonometry may seem pointless, but they have been devised by intelligent minds to satisfy certain purposes. Schools wouldn’t teach them if students didn’t have any use for them in their lives. Most students don’t even know what they want to be when they grow up, so it’s the school’s purpose to provide the best means for students to pursue whatever goals they may set in the future.

Homework. Homework is not all about teachers and professors making their students’ lives miserable. We need to learn responsibility. We also need to learn how to manage time. We need to learn that learning doesn’t only happen in the classroom. And we need to learn to solve problems on our own.

Writing reports and essays. Writing, in most cases, requires some form of rational thinking. Writing reports and essays forces us to research various topics and find new information that will gain us knowledge. These papers also have to follow certain guidelines set by the teacher, which will make us work toward a certain goal. If we don’t learn how to write well-structured reports, we will be unable to effectively communicate important facts to our peers.

Reading books. Although books aren’t the only source of knowledge since we have access to other media, books still matter a lot. Books are conventionally treated as the most accepted source of authoritative information. It’s inevitable that if something has been legitimately published, read and reviewed by people, it is considered to be a more reliable reference than an etching on a bathroom wall, or an anonymous blog post.

Doing presentations. Most of us don’t become public speakers, but communicating our thoughts in conversation is an important skill to acquire. Having a limited amount of time on our hands forces us to focus on the essentials and deliver a succinct message. Presentations also teach us how to be systematic and how to plan our thoughts in a well-structured manner.

Deadlines. Deadlines are horrible. But I can’t stress enough the importance of learning how to use deadlines to our own advantage. Individuals who know how to schedule their projects are definitely more successful than those who go without planning. The ability to set deadlines and follow them is one of the key factors of success.